Walking Home

Leafstorm cleared his throat awkwardly.
What do you do when your deceased former rouge mate's kittypet mother showed up, demanding to see her daughter and instead getting her blind grandchild?

He turned to look at her, stepping over a branch in the trail.
"Annabelle, if I may ask..." He flicked his tail uncomfortably. "Who was her father?"

Annabelle was walking in a surreal version of the territory she had walked tgrough just that morning. Grief hung heavy in her heart, making it hard to breath. Her daughter was dead. At least Cherryblossom had been happy, and now she had grandkits. But the bright side wasn´t bright enough to blot out the overwhelming darkness surrounding her. On the upside, at least it would make her news a lot easier to tell. She had hardly anything left to stay here for. Her mind was engolfed partialy into the real world once again by Leafstorm´s question, but it still felt like a dream.
"You mean Cherryblossom´s father?" she asked, but didn´t wait for a response. "His name is Storm. He used to be a rogue, but now he lives in WindClan to be with his kin." Sometimes she wished that her mate had never left for WindClan. He would be with her, and he would have never been attacked by Rockthorn. But fate had an awful way of working out badly.

The fluffy tabby blinked, taking this information into his mind. Meeting this tom could provide a few answers he was seeking.
"I... I see."
He stepped carefully over a puddle, turning to guide the kittypet. "Be careful here, it's muddy."

Annabelle just barely registered what Leafstorm was saying, nearly face planting into the puddle. She was glad he was guding her, if he wasn´t, she would have given up twice already. With her grief clouded mind, her fear of bugs, and her limited experiance, she was not at all ready to face this trek alone. She sighed heavily, as she had already done multiple times. Then she decided to tell him the news she knew she would hav to tell him eventually.
"Thanks," she said, not sounding as if she meant it, but not sarcastic either. "Leafstorm? Could you meet me at my twoleg´s den a moon from now?"

The large tabby flicked his ears, hiding the look of surprise on his face. Her question threw him off- after all, if he hadn't convinced her to meet him again, none of this would've happened.

He was already deep in trouble, and probably on the verge of being chased out...
but still.
"I... Of course."

"Thank you. And could you bring Cherrypaw too? I need to, uh, say something I want my whole family to know," Annabelle explained, gulping in the middle of her sentence. Her whole family couldn´t be there, because they weren´t there. Cherryblossom was dead. Lark and Marian had been taken by twolegs. She had been torn from her parents before she was old enough to remember. So most of her family was gone, and she would never see them again. And soon, she wouldn´t see any of her family again. She tried to restrain more sobs, but she couldn´t help but choke out a few. She should spend as much time with her son, mate, granddaugter, and her daughter´s mate as possible. Spark, Storm, Cherrypaw, and Leafstorm were her family for a moon longer, and she needed to cherish that.
"Please?"

The tom swallowed, moving forward and awkwardly comforting her. He felt a familiar wave of grief wash over him, and it didn't help that Cherryblossom and Annabelle looked so alike.
He could do nothing but nod dumbly, hanging on to every word she said like somehow, if the she-cat kept talking everything that had happened would disappear.

This she-cat had lost so much.

Annabelle couldn´t bring herself to even be happy when Leafstorm nodded. Just relieved that she would see him and her granddaughter again. Evin if she would never see any of her daughters again. She hung her head, trying to make herself stop thinking about it, but it was no use. What little family she had left was going to be torn from her, and Cherryblossom was gone forever. There wasn´t even a chance she was feeling happy, because she wasn´t feeling anything. She hoped that if somehow there was such thing as this StarClan that the clan cats spoke of, then her daughter had found her way there.
They had almost reached the edge of ThunderClan territory, but the kittypet didn´t even notice.

Leafstorm padded towards the edge of the forest, his paws following the familiar route towards his meeting place with Cherryblossom.
He shook his head, like a dog getting rid of fleas, and turned towards Annabelle.
"This is the start of Twolegplace, and as far as I go." He mewed simply, sitting and wrapping his tail around his paws.

Annabelle looked up at the words of Leafstorm, then let out yet another heavy sigh that contained more grief than healthy for her. Now she had to continue alone. She would have to talk to Storm too in a few days. As much as she wanted to see him again, she didn´t want to have to be the one to tell him that their daughter died. Oh well. Fate just didn´t like her very much.
"Bye, Leafstorm. I will see you in a moon," she replied sadly, then leaped onto the white fence. After taking her way longer than it should have to scramble up to the top, she turned and faced the warrior again. If Cherryblossom had had to choose someone to be her mate, she was glad that it was a nice tom. After a long, forlorn, glance, she turned and leaped off the other side of the fence, trotting back to her house.